The Little Things
by Aithusa
Summary: Snippets of life aboard the Normandy. Friendship, adventure and misunderstandings.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One:** Backseat Drivers

The door of the Mako flew open barely seconds after the vehicle had shuddered to a halt and Wrex stumbled out with a relieved groan, looking decidedly worse for wear. He was shortly followed by Garrus, who looked dazed and was swaying slightly on his feet.

Shepard climbed out after them with a spring in her step. "Come on, it wasn't that bad."

Garrus and Wrex turned to face her with matching expressions that clearly displayed their disagreement.

"Are you licensed to drive that thing?" Wrex grumbled, leaning heavily on the Mako for support.

Garrus shook his head in an attempt to clear it and mentioned, for the fourth time in as many minutes, "The propulsion jets weren't designed to cope with –"

"The propulsion jets are fine, I knew what I was doing!"

"We nearly went over a cliff. You nearly rammed into an animal!"

"I was aware of the edge, and I was miles away from the space cow. Besides, maybe I'd be able to focus properly if you two weren't so critical."

Wrex pushed himself upright. "Critical?" For a krogan, his voice was oddly shrill. "You tried to take us up a vertical incline. I only reminded you about gravity."

Shepard crossed her arms over her chest defensively. "I got us here quickly, and we're all in one piece. Let's just search the wreckage and head back."

Wrex's spluttered, "With you driving?"

Shepard huffed out an exasperated sigh. "Fine, fine! Garrus, you can drive us back to the Normandy. Can we get on with this now?"

Placated, Garrus and Wrex set off down the grassy hill to examine the towering, twisted and scorched remains of an old ship. Shepard lagged behind and patted the scratched and dented side of the fighting vehicle fondly. "You think my driving's fine, don't you Rusty?" The Mako suddenly released a noise like shuddering sigh. Shepard glared at it as if it had betrayed her and marched off down the hill.

Ten minutes later the trio had returned to the Mako, drenched by an unexpected shower. The weather on the planet was highly volatile and although it had been perfectly sunny when they arrived, a storm had quickly set in and thick drops of rain were now hammering the Mako's armour. Garrus adjusted the driver's seat for the third time and checked over the controls to familiarise himself them. "Are we going to get moving sometime today?" Shepard grumbled from behind him, shifting uncomfortably as drops of cold water slipped inside her armour.

Garrus resisted the urge to glare at her, instead settling in and starting the vehicle up; the Mako rattled to life and began to roll forwards. Shepard drummed her fingers impatiently on the door. Garrus' mandibles fluttered in irritation, but he urged the Mako into a slightly faster speed in response to her silent complaint. "Better?"

"Much – at this speed we might get back before I turn a hundred."

Garrus gripped the steering wheel tightly and launched into a heated debate with the Commander. Neither heard Wrex's protests until it was too late.

Distracted, Garrus hadn't noticed the small incline up ahead. The Mako jerked to a stop and tilted helplessly back and forward at the top of a V-shaped hill, with all its wheels off the ground and spinning in the air. "You have got to be kidding." Wrex muttered.

Garrus, Wrex and Shepard stepped out onto the engineering deck of the Normandy over an hour later, thoroughly soaked, disgruntled and stiff. They stood in silence for a while as a large puddle formed at their feet. Everyone present on the deck knew better than to ask what had happened. Eventually Wrex rumbled, "Next time, I drive," and without another word the trio went their separate ways, leaving trails of water behind them.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two:** An Unexpected Guest

The _Normandy's_ floor thrummed underneath Shepard's feet and soft light filtered into the dimly lit mess hall from the medbay's windows. Aside from Liara, who was absorbed in studying a datapad while absently munching away at a bag of crisps, the area was deserted. With a mug of freshly brewed coffee in hand, Shepard slid into the seat opposite Liara and deeply inhaled the rich scent of the steaming liquid. She hummed in satisfaction and allowed herself a contented smile.

A terrified shriek pierced the bubble of tranquility and Shepard shot out of her seat. Her abandoned mug teetered on the edge of the table before tipping off and shattering on the floor. She glanced at it mournfully, but soon forced her attention back to the current crisis.

A strange scuffling sound grew louder by the second. Liara rose from her seat warily and clutched her data pad, prepared to use it as a make-shift weapon. Barely a second later Tali tore around the corner and nearly collided with Liara. The young quarian mumbled an apology as she scrambled up onto the table and used the vantage point to search the room frantically.

There was a short, stunned silence before Shepard managed to gather herself together and speak. "Uh, Tali? What – what's going on?"

" _Shhh_! It'll hear you!" Tali hissed.

Garrus shuffled into the mess hall with a wide yawn and walked towards the kitchenette, passing the table Tali had climbed on top of before doing a double take, turning on his heel and walking to Shepard's side. He looked up at Tali and his mandibles fluttered in confusion. "Is there something I'm missing?"

"There's a – a _thing_ on board. It's tiny, but it's evil." Tali murmured, only leaving the trio standing below her more confused and concerned. Liara held a hand out for Tali, hoping to help her down, and tried to reason with her. "Tali, maybe you should get down before you – " Liara trailed off and yelped in surprise as a small, grey blur raced into the mess hall and dove under the table with a hiss. She scrambled up onto the table beside Tali, her eyes wild.

Shepard frowned, knelt down and hesitantly lowered her head to the floor to see what was hiding under the table. Garrus awkwardly thumped down onto the ground beside her to take a look for himself, while Tali and Liara watched worriedly from above. It took only a few seconds for Shepard's vision to adjust to the dark shadows under the table and the creature quickly became visible. Shepard's mouth split into a grin. A tiny, furry, grey body, speckled with black patches of fur, trembled in fright beneath the table. Wide, yellow eyes darted nervously between Shepard and Garrus. "It's a human pet, isn't it? I've seen them stalking around the Citadel," Garrus whispered. Shepard attempted to nod, but winced as banged her head on the low table. "It's a cat. And it's harmless. Or, it's _mostly_ harmless."

Garrus watched the cat curiously, and it stared back. "How did it get aboard the _Normandy_? Our loading procedures are thorough." Shepard attempted to shrug, but the tight space under the table limited her movement. "I'll have to do a little investigating later." There was a rumble of agreement from Garrus, "I'll carry out an inspection of our supplies too." Shepard smiled gratefully.

Garrus reached his hand out towards the cat to try and scoop it out from under the table, but his sudden movement startled it and the cat hissed and batted at his hand. Garrus pulled back in surprise and scrambled out from underneath the table, shocked to find that its claw had caught a sensitive part of his skin and there was a bead of dark blue blood forming. "You said it was harmless!"

Shepard rolled her eyes. "I said it was _mostly_ harmless, you wuss. You just frightened it. Come on, little guy," Shepard cooed, crawling backwards and lightly drumming her fingers on the floor to encourage the cat to follow. Slowly, as Tali, Liara and Garrus watched on in horror, the tiny cat walked towards her. Once she was clear of the table Shepard sat up and grinned victoriously. The cat plonked himself down in front of her and began to groom himself. He looked scruffy and underweight. "Poor little guy," Shepard cooed and reached out to scratch behind his ears. The cat purred and rolled over onto its back. She observed it for a moment before grinning and deciding, "I'm going to call you Pepper."

Garrus spluttered in indignation and Liara's mouth opened and closed like a goldfish as she tried to speak. Eventually, it was Tali that managed to voice a protest. "Shepard, you can't keep it. We don't even have anything to feed it."

Shepard didn't look up from scratching Pepper's chest. "I'll grab some supplies before we leave the Citadel." Garrus, Tali and Liara exchanged desperate looks, but they already knew there was no point in arguing further. Shepard had made her decision.

Tali and Liara clambered down from the table warily as Shepard scooped Pepper up and headed for the medbay so Chakwas could examine him. As Shepard stepped inside a loud groan was heard, followed shortly by, "Commander, I'm a doctor, not a vet!" The medbay's door swished closed and the mess hall fell silent again.

Liara sighed in fond exasperation, sat down at the table and resumed scrolling through her datapad. Tali shrugged at Garrus and left the mess hall. Garrus watched Chakwas wrestling with the cat through the medbay's windows for a while before shaking his head and turning to leave too. He only managed a single step before slipping on a puddle of cold, forgotten coffee and crashing to the floor.

Liara would later deny it, but Garrus heard her chuckling at his misfortune. He grunted as he pulled himself to his feet, quickly mopped up the spill and headed out of the mess hall to inspect the Normandy's supplies as promised. What was it Shepard always said? _No rest for the wicked._


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three:** Traitor

"You betrayed me!" Liara's eyes glittered with barely suppressed rage as she spoke.

Garrus shifted uncomfortably under her glare and his mandibles fluttered in distress. "I didn't have a choice."

Liara huffed in disbelief and turned away from him, unable to look at him for a second longer. "We were supposed to be a team, Garrus. I trusted you."

Seated at the opposite end of the table, Joker rolled his eyes at the theatrics and shoved the deck of UNO cards closer to Liara. "Just draw your cards already." Liara reached towards the deck and deliberately drew each of the four cards painfully slowly, glaring daggers at Garrus the whole time. Garrus shrunk in his seat, his eyes flickering guiltily over to the shiny +4 card at the top of the pile.

Shepard snickered, but quickly muffled the sound as Liara's glare shifted to her. She was beginning to think that teaching Liara to play UNO had been a bad idea. Who knew she was so competitive? "Uh – which colour Garrus?"

Garrus nervously muttered a quick, "Blue." Liara's glare became more intense and Garrus shrunk further down into his seat.

In an attempt to move on quickly Shepard slammed a blue +2 on top of the pile and murmured an apology to Tali who, absorbed in the drama between Liara and Garrus, tried to play a normal 2 card on top of it.

Kaidan stretched his hand out to stop her from putting the card down on the pile. "Shepard played a plus two on you, you can't put a normal one on top." Tali tore her gaze away from Liara and Garrus and blinked at the pile. "Oh, right, yes. I'll just –"

"I know how you feel Tali. The burn of betrayal." Liara butted in dramatically, turning further away from Garrus and facing the wall. Garrus dropped his cards onto the table. "Come on! You made me miss a turn when it was going in the other direction!" Liara spluttered in mock indignation and spun round to face him again, "Missing a turn is nothing compared to a +4! And I had to get rid of the high cards, Ashley was nearly out!"

Ashley learned back in her chair, "Whoa, don't bring me into this, I'm just playing the game." Joker snorted in disbelief. Ashley turned her head to look at him and raised a single, threatening eyebrow. "You got something to say there, Moreau?" Within seconds the table had descended into chaos as full blown arguments broke out among all the players. A joyous spark glinted in Wrex's eyes, who was glad to finally be seeing some action. Accusations of cheating flew across the table. Shepard heard snippets of the argument between Kaiden and Tali. "I was only trying to help!" Followed by a sarcastic, "Uh-huh. _Sure_."

Thankfully, Shepard had a loyal companion to rush to the rescue. Pepper the cat, attracted by the commotion, pounced onto the table, scattering cards, chips and dip everywhere. Kaidan ducked, and Garrus leapt out of his chair to avoid being hit by flying cheddar cheese dip. A blanket of silence settled over the table as Pepper plonked himself in the centre, before Garrus seized the opportunity to make a quick getaway. Shuffling towards the door he said, "Well, looks like the game's over. I'd better get going. The mako looked like it needed a little – uh – work." With that, he slipped out of the room. Liara narrowed her eyes, jumped up and rushed after him, unwilling to let the matter go. She was followed shortly by Tali, who didn't want to miss out on the action, and soon everyone but Shepard, Joker and Pepper had disappeared.

Joker leaned back in his seat. "Well, that was fun."

Shepard reached out to scratch behind Pepper's ears gratefully. "It _really_ wasn't."

"We should do it again."

"We are never doing that again."

"Maybe Monopoly?"

"Oh, hell no."

Joker chuckled and examined a card dripping with red sauce. "This is why people play with virtual decks of cards." Pepper meowed in agreement and stretched out on the table, purring contentedly.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four:** Vigil

Exhaustion dragged at Shepard's eyelids, but she fought to keep them open as the elevator inched its way down to engineering. She stifled a yawn as the lift crawled to a stop and the door slid open onto the darkened, deserted deck. After shuffling into the engine room and checking that everything was in order she turned to leave, but stopped short on her journey back to the elevator when she noticed a lonely figure watching the drive core up ahead.

"Tali?" Shepard stepped closer as the quarian spun around. "Are you okay?"

"Shepard! Yes, I'm just – not very tired." Tali's posture told a different story; her shoulders were slumped and she swayed slightly on her feet.

Shepard raised a suspicious eyebrow and Tali fidgeted for a few seconds before admitting, with her head bowed sheepishly, "It's nothing, really – just having a little trouble sleeping. That's all."

"You want some company?"

"No! I mean, I'd feel terrible making you stay up too. You looked exhausted." Behind her mask the light of Tali's eyes widened as she realised the implications of what she'd just said. "Not in a bad way! You look great. I meant –"

Shepard chuckled and tried to stop her, but Tali kept babbling, her words beginning to slur in her state of exhaustion, "– an' 'm sure I'll ge –"

"Tali!" The young quarian stopped abruptly and blinked at Shepard in surprise. "I'm heading up to the mess hall for a glass of water, want to come with me?" Tali hesitated for a moment before nodding gratefully and heading for the elevator.

A few minutes later the door slid open onto the crew deck which, like engineering below it, was dimly lit and quiet. Garrus was in the mess hall, rummaging through the cupboards. He withdrew his hand and turned his head when he heard approaching footsteps, but his mandibles shifted into the equivalent of a smile when he spotted familiar faces.

"What are you up to?" Shepard asked suspiciously, but returned the smile.

Garrus resumed searching the cupboard and responded with a non-committal, "Just killing time." He pulled a small, silver packet out with a triumphant "Hah!", ripped it open and extracted a small, rectangular lump that resembled a cereal bar. Kasumi suddenly materialised behind him to ask, "Anything good in there?" The bar slipped out of Garrus' hand and he juggled with it for a few seconds before regaining his grip. He glared back at Kasumi, but there was no real venom in his gaze. "How long have you been there?" Kasumi only smirked in reply and opened another cupboard door to investigate for herself. She withdrew a small bag from the cupboard, the contents clicking together like small beads. "Ooh, popcorn. What a luxury! I didn't know we had this. We should make up a pot of it and set up a vid – it'd be like a little cinema." Shepard chuckled and was about to refuse, but she glanced at Tali out of the corner of her eye and realised it might not be a bad idea. They were all up, likely for similar reasons, and a short movie could provide much needed company and help them all unwind. "Why not?"

Ten minutes later tables had been pushed out of the way to make a large space on the floor where a few pillows, blankets, coats and anything else soft that could be found had been piled to make a sitting area with a bowl of popcorn in the centre. Tali and Garrus, obviously unable to eat the popcorn, had juice pouches and a bowl of pale-looking paste, which they insisted was very tasty, between them. A screen was projected onto the wall opposite them and was playing a movie of Garrus' choosing. It was a turian version of a crime drama, named after the city on Palaven where it was set – _Kyrhoi_ – and Shepard was surprised to find herself thoroughly enjoying it. Garrus kept mumbling the best lines under his breath, clearly very familiar with the plot, and Kasumi kept throwing popcorn at him and hissing at him to be quiet – which of course only made him worse. He only fell silent when they all realised that Tali had finally fallen asleep; her head rested on Shepard's shoulder and she was snoring lightly. Kasumi wordlessly passed a spare blanket over, which Garrus draped over Tali to keep her warm.

Somehow movie night became a regular occurrence and it attracted more participants. Mordin stumbled over the small gathering late one night and decided to join, mostly out of curiosity. Kasumi had a hard time keeping both him and Garrus quiet – Mordin had a habit of keeping a running commentary about the scientific inaccuracies of old sci-fi films.

Chakwas and Joker discovered the group watching an old comedy-drama – _Life is Beautiful_ – a few days later and took up places near the back. Shepard was sure she saw Joker tear up near the end, but he denied it vehemently. They were shortly followed by Thane, Samara and Grunt, who narrowly avoided crushing Tali when he crashed down onto the floor next to her without warning. They soon discovered that the krogan had little patience for scenes without action, and often ended up being sent into time outs – but always came back for more.

Eventually the group had swelled to include the whole squad. Even, surprisingly, Jack and Miranda – although they sat on opposite ends of the room – and a curious Legion. Gabby, Kenneth and Kelly joined occasionally, and everyone squished onto the blankets in the centre. The smell of popcorn, soda and other assorted food and drinks wafted through the room, with hushed chat and occasional squabbles filling the silence.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five** : A Jar of Honey

Shepard immediately regretted her decision to check her e-mails. She had accumulated twenty-seven unread e-mails in her inbox, six of which were labelled 'URGENT', and one of which had six exclamation marks following the title. Wonderful.

She ran a hand over her face and headed towards a table in the mess hall, but stopped short when she noticed a mug on the table in front of her usual seat. It was still steaming, clearly recently made, but the mess hall was deserted. Shepard eyed it suspiciously, trying to remember if she'd made it for herself and just didn't remember – was she going crazy? Probably.

She slid into her seat and examined the contents of the mug. Hot tea, with a little bit of milk. She waited for a few minutes, checking to see if anyone would return to claim it, but the room remained quiet and the tea was cooling rapidly. She picked up the mug and took a tentative sip. It was perfect. She even tasted some honey in it – the real stuff – a luxury she was sure the Normandy didn't keep in stock. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth and she resumed reading her e-mails, feeling just a little bit lighter.

It wasn't the last mysterious cup of tea Shepard discovered waiting for her. From that day, it seemed that whenever life was a little overwhelming, there it would be. Shepard had often tried to work out who was making them, but with little success. Whoever it was seemed to be constantly two steps ahead. Shepard almost gave up and accepted that whoever it was wanted to remain anonymous when she discovered it – a jar of honey.

Tucked away, half empty and mostly hidden behind files, the jar sat innocently on a shelf in Mordin's lab. Shepard stopped mid-sentence when she spotted it and completely lost her train of thought. Mordin cleared his throat. "Shepard? Need something?"

Her eyes flickered from the jar to his face. "It was you? All the tea? And – and the honey?"

"Ah. Yes." The salarian offered no explanation, instead reverting back to the previous topic of conversation.

Shepard grinned. "You're not trying to poison me, are you?"

The salarian stopped short, looking aghast at the suggestion. "No! Never! Simply noticed you were experiencing high stress levels. Wished to help."

"Mordin, relax, that was a joke. Not a very good one, I suppose." Shepard paused. "The tea … you made it perfectly. How did you know the way I liked it?"

Mordin shrugged. "Research. Observation. Wanted to help. That is what friends are for." With that, Mordin once again resumed the earlier discussion about his current research.

A few minutes later Shepard moved to leave the lab. She turned back at the door. "Mordin?" He looked up from his notes. "Thank you."

He smiled. "Of course, Shepard."


End file.
